


hey, hey, you can stand under my umbrella-ella

by SearchingforSerendipity



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: F/M, Friendship/Love, I got caught in the rain without an umbrella and an attractive stranger is sharing theirs with me AU, Modern AU, Waterbenders come in handy on rainy days, benders are a thing, sort of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-25
Updated: 2015-11-04
Packaged: 2018-04-28 02:35:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,860
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5074066
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SearchingforSerendipity/pseuds/SearchingforSerendipity
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <em>Zuko had blink a few times to realize the downpour had stopped, at least in a ratio of two feet around him. There was someone else walking a little in front of him, the only person without an umbrella he had seen since early morning.</em>
</p><p>  <em>"Are you alright? You seem -- well, a little damp." The girl asked. Wrapped in a thick fur-lined woolen coat, it was clear the terrible weather didn't bother her, or if it did it was to her benefit.</em></p><p>  <em>She was, of course, completely dry. Damn waterbenders. </em></p><p> </p><p>A "got caught in the rain without an umbrella and an attractive stranger is sharing theirs with me" AU.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. the pouring

**Author's Note:**

> Title from the music 'Umbrella' by Rihanna. Because why not.
> 
> I own nothing.

Zuko had passed the point of swearing half an hour ago. At this point his focus was on avoiding the deep ponds that seemed to occupy exactly the places his boots needed to step on. It was like the spirits had conferred together to decide that yes, this day was going to be an exceptionally shitty day on his exceptionally shitty life.

Not for the first time he cursed Uncle's love for tea, especially when sick, the long sighs and muffled coughs that had moved him to go to that shabby shop near the docks to find the leaves Uncle swore could cure any cold. He hoped he was right, because at the rate his nose was dripping they would be having tea for two.

A bus drove by the sidewalk, giving rise to a wave of muddy rainwater and sodden leaves over him. 

Zuko flailed, shouting at the driver. "Really? Come back, you peasant!" The bus honked twice, like a mocking laugh.

He shock a damp bang of hair plastered to hisbad eye. All of him felt tired, his parka long soaked though and his fine leather shoes heavy like a full sea sponge. He cupped his palms, focusing his energy on a single, blessedly warm flame. It flickered before becoming bold, returning some feelings to his fingers, but a stronger sheet of rain from a new angle turned it to smoke and left him shiver. 

Sighing, he trudged faster, curling himself against the precious brown package under his clothes and voiding other hurried commuters. The leaves were the only dry thing around, he thought sourly. Zuko's mind wandered, dreaming about eating warm rice buns under a blanket and the scented wisps of smoke hovering over a good cup of hot tea...

He had blink a few times to realize the downpour had stopped, at least in a ratio of two feet around him. There was someone else walking a little in front of him, the only person without an umbrella he had seen since early morning.

"Are you alright? You seem -- well, a little damp." The girl asked. Wrapped in a thick fur-lined woollen coat, it was clear the terrible weather didn't bother her, or if it did it was to her benefit. 

She was, of course, completly dry. Damn waterbenders. Her bare wrists didn't even have the dignity to be goose bumped as she raised them to maintain the protective shield.

"I'm fine." He said sharply, making her frown. Zuko felt shame curdling in his stomach. Uncle said his curtness would bring him no favors, and while he tried to avoid thinking about it, perhaps things would have gone better with Jin if he had tried being more personable. He was too tired to ignore his guilt, so he nodded and tried to stretch his mouth into something less like a grimace. 

"Thank you." 

A quick glance showed that the subway entrance was still at the end of the block. The long, miserable, damp block. He sighed, speaking begrudgingly.

"I don't suppose you'll be taking the subway too?"

The waterbender smiled. She had very strange eyes, he noticed, almost purple, and a necklace around her neck that suited her well.

"Sure. I'm Katara, by the way. I think we might be taking the same train."

Zuko ducked his head and hid behind a curtain of wet hair. For some reason, his cheeks didn't feel so cold anymore.


	2. the scouring

The next morning Katara is waiting for him by the subway's door. She blushes when he asks her why and says she couldnt possibly leave him to turn into a wet badgermole again. He splutters and she laughs and they spend the way to Uncle's teashop, talking or just listening to the rain battering in her shield, and the silence that falls thick between them is companionable. Comfortable.

It becomes a tradition. Zuko finds himself waking up every day hoping this isn't the morning the rain season ends. As long as the sky is overcast with pregnant clouds Katara offers him her self-made umbrella, and he's more pleased than he cares to admit when she starts coming to the Jade Dragon after classes.

She's staying with her brother and two friends in a university dorm, she tell him, and between the four of them there's no quiet to be had. Uncle Iroh likes her at once, and often stops by her table to chat about applying waterbending techniques with the traditional steps for steeping tea. But mostly he covers for Zuko when he lingers by her side between costumers when he can, and often when he shouldn't.

( it's not -- easy. zuko is not an easy person, and katara is anything but simple. she's kind and fierce and dorky and he doesn't know how to be the friend she deserves. But he tries and so does she and it's good. It is. )

"You don't have to choose right now, or ever if you don't want to, but I could heal your scars. If you want me to." They are sitting by the counter, drinking lavender tea from the last pot Uncle made. The shop is closed for the day and the only light comes from the candle light he's been playing with and the lightning strikes that crisscross the windows every other minute.

The candles go out with his surprise.

"You could?"

Katara shrugs, like its nothing, like she hadn't just offered to make him whole, make him right again. "Sokka's first girlfriend, Yuei? I mentioned her before. Her family is really old, really conservative, they live in a huge state in the North Pole, and there's this pool with healing waters. She gave me a vial of water after I finished my healing internship." Indeed, theres a vial of clear water in a cord around her neck, safely kept out of sight, unlike her mother's necklace.

"Zuko?" She whispers. He thinks he might be scaring her, knows he should say something, but his throat doesn't seem to be working and even if it were he wouldn't know what to say. How could there be words big enough for this?

He isn't aware he's talking until he hears himself speak, "It was my father".

She shushes him, says he doesn't have to tell her, that it doesn't matter."It does." He growls to stop himself from wailing. "You deserve to know. It was my father".

The story comes, in stutters and halts. He tries to keep his voice even, to be strong for once, but Katara's hand in a refreshing weight on his own and its easy, so easy to lose himself in the memories of _worthless_ and _your fault mother left_ and burning blistering pain.

It's the first time Zuko talks about it with someone other than Uncle, the first time a friend tells him he is more than his scars, than whatever his bastard of a father though he was, and _oh, zuko, you do know he was wrong, don't you? so, so wrong. you don't deserve any of it. you never did._

 Outside the elements rage on his account. The wind howls, rain hammers the walls and the clouds darken with Katara's anger, mirroring the tears she sheds because of him, for him. He only notices his own face is wet when she touches it. The vial presses against his chest when she hugs him, and Zuko cries, cries, and feels like some stain is being washed away, scraping him clean and leaving him lighter and younger and freer.


	3. the flowing

There is a firefly buzzing around his head.

Zuko waves it away with a growl in the back of his throat. The barge sways in the cradle of the river, never straying bathe center of the stream or hitting a rock. They are the only ones on the river today and there wasn't a soul in sight. It is hot and itchy and not even Uncle's borrowed straw hat can protect him from the sky's glare and the buzzing of river bugs.

"Zuko, look," Katara murmures, voice quiet with awe, hardly dares to breathe. She had fallen silent after the first leg of the riven, when Zuko's objections had ceased and the sounds of civilization became muffled by the trees. Her fingers are wet from dipped them in the green-blue waters, and perched on the tip of her index finger was a purple butterfly with furry antennas.

Girl and butterfly seem to evaluate each other. Neither is found wanting, because Katara has to stifle her giggles as the Purple Mouse Butterfly hopped to her shoulder, than her head, before opening wings almost the size of his's palms and flying away.

"Wasn't she lovely?" He shrugged. It was just an insect, but he wasn't going to admit it was pretty. Not as pretty as Katara's smile, anyway, and it wasn't the same color of her eyes either.

"Shouldn't you be with your friends?" He asked instead, for about the third time. Katara only rolls her eyes.

"They still have exams, it wouldn't be fair to flaunt my freedom while they cram. Besides, I get to choose how I celebrate my end of semester and I'm making up for lost time."

That is certainly true. It was nearly impossible to make Katara change her mind when it was made up, and she was very firm when she decided to drag him to the national park for a pick-nick. Uncle had been in on it, of course, so Zuko had barely had time to wash that morning before a hat was plucked on his head and Katara had bullied him to the train.

Still, he was enjoying himself. The last few weeks had been busy, and the only time he'd seen Katara she d snapped at him for interrupting her while she pored over her notebooks. She'd called the next day to apologize, in a much better mood after the worst of the stress had passed, but it was nice to see her so carefree again.

(he hadn't moped, no matter what uncle iroh said. he _hadn't_.)

She leaned back beside him, knees digging against his leg. "Ugh, I'm so full. You Uncle's noodles are great, he should had them to the menu." A beat of silence. "I don't suppose there's any dessert, is there?" Huffing at her sheepish smile, he picked up the wrapped parcel under the noodle bowls.

His temper flared for a moment, but it pluttered quiclly enough. It was hard to be angry in this place, with the barge's movements and a full stomach lulling him to serenity.

 _I bet that was Uncle's plan. Meddling old man_.

"Have you ever fed the turtle ducks?" He asked. She propped on an elbow to watch him break the bread. "You have to break the pieces just right, not too big or too small. They dont have teeth, so sometimes the mothers much on the bread until its soft enough for the chicks," A small smile stole over his face. "Those were my mother's favorites."

He didn't need to look to know Katara's eyes were warm. Bread pieces passed hands without turning his focus from the nearest family of turtleducks.

The shimmering surface broke as the waterbender steered the small ship until they were almost in arms reach of the animals. There was a mother busy overseeing three chicks, fussing their feathers with her beack. The flapped fluffy wings over green shells as they crowded around the bread. The mother ate right out of Katara's hand. A South wind whipped Katara's hair out of its braids, playing games of light on the heavy branches above and the shaded reeds and tangled roots.

He could glimpse the nest, and a shape shuffling to the shore. This turtleduck is smaller, his shell darker; the runt of the litter, as it were. By the time it arrived near the barge only crumbs floated in the water and its siblings were already swimming away.

"Here. There you go." Zuko offered the last of the bread. The turtleduck bumped his palm, once, letting him stroke a finger down the glossy shell and tickling feathers as it munched on gracelessly.

He rested his head against the railing, looking out for the little chick before it followed his family behind a curve in the river and went beyond sight, leaving an undulating coat of waves in its wake. His dangling fingers touched damp flesh, entwined, gripped tight. The river breath ran between them, let them float down its course, a weightless kind of pledge.

Behind them, the foam turned to ripples turned to tide. 


	4. the rippling

They come in force, a small army of nosy friends and concerned family.

There is Sokka, loud and brash and certain of Zuko's unworthiness, the only point they seem to agree with. Aang is powerful- gods, how in the world had Katara even met the Avatar?- and bright and so clearly enamorated with Katara that Zuko feel guilty, and more worried than he cared to admit, until the kid dragged him on a day trip to the Fire History Museum and they ended up in one of Zuko's less awkward hugs on his extensive list of awkward hugs.

Toph is a nuisance, of course, but a familiar one. She and Uncle had some sort of Sunday Morning brunch therapy session thing going on, and he had gotten used to her cackling laugh and eerie lie-detecting abilities as much as anyone could.

It takes a long while, more heart to hearts than he is ever going to be confortable with and an unholy amount of tea, but somewhere along the way Zuko ends up with more friends than he knows what to do with.

Katara, of course, is terribly smug.

"I told you would get along great." She boasts, fliking water at him with her toes.

Behind them, near the house Sokka is trying to light the end-of-summer fireworks while Toph and Suki mock him. Aang is on the water, playing catch amongst the waves with Momo.

"I had to help Sokka bail Suki out of jail to get him to talk to me," he points out.

He doesn't mention that it was the first time in years he had seen his sister, or that Sokka had stood up for him. Katara knew well enough how badly he had taken it.

She had also put Azula to the ground via water whip on the only time she showed at the Jade Dragon. It had been amazing, but Zuko's memories were pleasantly fuzzed by the kiss that had followed.

Now she rested against him with the water lapping at their feet, and Zuko didn't have to think twice before pressing his nose to her hair. He still hesitated, still wondered at _how could this be possible, spirits knew things like this didnt happen to people like him_ , but he had gotten better. It wasn't like they left much room for doubt.

"But I'm glad I forgot my umbrella that day." He admitted. It was a full moon tonight and Katara glowed with it, eyes bright and dark skin darkened further in the last weeks.

She looked nice in firebender red, with her hair looser than usual walking around the halls of his family's vacation house, like she didn't belong there but could, maybe.

"I'm glad too." A breath puffing against his nose, teeth flashing in the dusk. "Even if you did look like a drowned badger mole."

His fingers were tickilbg her sides before she finished speaking. They rolled in the bluff, laughing and getting sand everywhere, and Zuko wasnt even bothered at how stupid it was to wrestly with a waterbender near the sea because there were cool vices around his wrists and when she smiled down at him like that he knew she was going to kiss him. And she did.

"Look out!"

A sound like a meat sizzling followed by great heaving made them turn back in time to see Sokka's eyes widening right before his firework splutter and exploded.

He emerged from the smoke coughing and missing most of his eyebrows, and after a while couldn't keep himself from laughing with them.

"You could have given me a hand, Zuko." He complained, scratching his sooty cheeks.

"They were too _busy_ ," Toph snickered, at the same time he said, "It didn't turn out that badly."

It hadn't. The purplish blues of the sky were split apart again and again by new colors, earth red and sun yellow and cornflower blue, jagged reds and bold oranges casting light games on the sea. A stronger wave dampened his hair, made his eyes sting.

The colors thundered, the sky rippled and his friends cheered, both close and far away, so ridiculous and his.

The fireworks faded, in time, the buttery moon hid from sight, but Zuko and Katara didn't leave the beach even as the first fat drop of water fell in the sand, or the second or the third.

Flames bloomed amongst the shells, steam rose it thick warmth against the cold as the empty air turned into a cloak, and while the sand darkened and the waves ripples, none of the rain touched them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this was supposed to come on Monday, but it ended up being a week instead. I blame uni. This is probably the last chapter, but I might write an epilogue of sorts in the future. 
> 
> Thank you to everyone who read this, I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did. Let me know your thoughts!

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos, bookmarks and comments are always welcome.


End file.
